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Anybody want to go for a swim in a pond of stagnant, sludgy water? No? Why, then, would we expect our fish to be happy in a tank with poor water circulation? Like its cousin the air pump, a water pump is another kind of aquarium pump that will help to create a healthy environment for your fish.

1. Filling up the tank and draining it as well. Aquariums periodically must be drained and filled back up. What better way to do this than to use an aquarium pump?
2. Filtration. Perhaps the most fundamental use of these aquarium pumps is to either move water into the filtration system, or to move the water back into the tank after filtration has occurred. The filter setup in your aquarium, along with the necessary flow rate and head height, will determine the kind of water pump you buy.
* Aquarium water pumps can either be submersible in the tank (as with powerheads) or outside of the tank in the form of an in-line water pump. Submersibles make less noise and are typically easier to set up. However, in-line water pumps are capable of generating more powerful pumping than submersibles, and also will not heat up surrounding water as the submerged pumps unfortunately can (one clear benefit of being outside of the water). For pressure filtering systems, you should use an in-line.
* For a wet/dry filter system, your aquarium water pump will be set up to move the water from your filter back into the greater volume of the tank. You can use either a submersible water pump or an in-line free-flow water pump. Once again, the in-line pump does not carry the risk of heating the water, and can even achieve a better flow rate. But you’ll have to roll up your sleeves and be prepared for some installation fun.
3. Protein Skimmers. In a separate article, we described how air pumps can be used to power a protein skimmer. Aquarium water pumps can serve the same purpose, but with greater gusto. Turbo and Venturi protein skimmers both rely on a water pump.
4. Making healthy currents. It is important in any aquarium to avoid dead pockets of no water movement. In such places where water stagnates, algae will build up. Think of a swamp. Aquarium water pumps are often used to create currents and water movement in your aquarium.

Water movement in aquariums has grown quite sophisticated over the years. Water pumps can be used to power wave makers, which can simulate ocean currents within your aquarium. Particularly if you have a reef aquarium, this feature is a vital investment; corals and saltwater invertebrate species depend upon this kind of water movement in order to feed and to get rid of waste.

As with other aquarium pumps, you can buy a water pump from pet stores and online. If you are just beginning as an aquarist, try to visit a local pet store where the staff can help you navigate the many options and make sense of the features and specifications of the water pumps. When you buy your aquarium water pump, consider the following guidelines.

* Flow rate. Flow rate is the amount of water the pump will move in an hour (measured in gallons per hour, or GPH). The water in your aquarium should be turned over roughly four times every hour; if your tank holds ten gallons, for example, then you would have to buy an aquarium pump capable of sustaining a flow rate of forty gallons per hour.
* Head height. Head height is the vertical distance from the pump to the highest destination of pumped water. Once you have figured out the type of water pump that will work with your filtration system, the head height and flow rate will determine whether or not one of these aquarium pumps will work properly in your aquarium.
* However, when buying an aquarium water pump, it’s always best to err on the strong side. Once you have bought your aquarium’s water pump, you can adjust the flow rate in only one direction: down. To continue using the previous example, buying an aquarium pump with a 40 GPH flow rate at your head height will not be able to compensate for plumbing factors that can decrease flow rate of a pump. Instead of buying the aquarium pump that just satisfies your flow rate and head height needs, buy one that exceeds the requirements.

Typical situation where a ram pump may be used

Momentum building up

Shock wave pushes water into delivery pipe as impulse valve shuts

Water enters the ram from the thick drive pipe and runs out of the impulse valve, which is held open by a spring (or weight in larger pumps). As the momentum increases, the pressure of the water will drag the impulse valve shut. This creates a shock wave inside the ram body, pushing water past the delivery valve (a non-return valve). As the pressure subsides the impulse valve opens and the cycle begins again. This takes place more than 100 times a minute, depending on the head pressure and tuning of the impulse valve, and each pulse pushes up a small quantity of water through the thinner delivery pipe. The air chamber cushions the flow. The tiny snifter valve below the chamber allows a small quantity of air into the air chamber with every pulse to replace air lost into the deliver pipe. A small squirt of water will come out on the recoil.

If you have a water supply (spring, brook or river) below the point where you need the water, and the source is higher than the lowest part of the property, then a hydraulic ram pump may be the solution. Hydraulic ram pumps are powered by a portion of the water running through it. If the cost of a commercial pump puts you off, or the water volume is too little to operate the pump, you can make one to suit your conditions at very little cost.

It is made with 1″ stock brass compression fittings, some inner tube for valves, a few nuts and bolts and some copper pipe, some of which was flattened to use for valve seats. It is held down onto some concrete embedded I-beam with exhaust pipe brackets, cushioned by inner tube. The supply pipe is 3/4″, the delivery pipe 1/2″ and the expansion chamber 1″ diameter. There is a small amount of soldering involved. It pumped a little over 10% of the water a few dozen feet up, making it as efficient as commercial pumps. The small size works with the limited amount of water I have. The basic principle for building it came from a book, but I scaled it down, and made some changes, and avoided welding. The measurments were roughly calculated by rule of thumb: “that looks about right”. In this picture the pump is disconnected from the pipes. It only cost a few GB Pounds for the bend and ‘T’s, the 1″ pipe piece needed was recycled from a skip (dumpster).

1. You will definitely be relying on professional contractors to properly install a heat pump, be it air-source or ground-source. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be equipped with some basic installation guidelines to ensure that the job is well done.
2. If installing a ground-source heat pump that draws on well water or a local water source, make sure the water quality is high and that this process is legal in your area. Poor water with lots of particulate matter, or highly acidic water, will hamper the performance of your heat pump.
3. The manufacturer’s product literature will tell you how loud the heat pump can be. Make sure that this noise level falls within the acceptable bounds of your area. If using an air-source heat pump, the contractor should install it ideally where it won’t be near neighbors.
4. Be sure the installation is made in the proper location relative to pre-existing furnaces.
5. The outside portion of the air-source heat pump should be on a platform to promote drainage and ensure that it won’t be snowed in. A windy location should be avoided.
6. No matter what type of heat pump you chose, make sure you have chosen a reliable, experienced contractor with a good track record. The contractor should be able to examine your home and tell you how much work your heat pump will have to do to heat and cool it. Also, the contractor should check to make sure your ductwork and electrical system can handle the addition of a heat pump.

1. Temperature. First of all, you must come to terms with what you can expect from your heat pump. What is the climate in your region? Does weather remain pretty temperate, or do temperatures swing violently in either direction during a year? A heat pump will not suffice in freezing and the most extremely cold weather. For much of the year, the heat pump will work like a charm for you, but when the temperatures drop into the deep freezing dead of winter, you really need a backup heating source. If you can afford both heat pump and gas furnace, this setup makes the most sense; the gas furnace will be most efficient below 30 degrees Fahrenheit, while above that temperature (until around 70 degrees) the heat pump will work best.

2. Air-source. We’re all fairly familiar with the function of air conditioners. An air-to-air heat pump works basically the same way, except that it can switch from providing cold to providing heat (these heat pumps each have a valve that determines the direction that the refrigerant flows within the device).

Air-source heat pumps won’t require the contractors to dig into your yard and bury anything, as will the ground-source heat pumps. (Who knows what they might dig up?) However, you’ll have to deal with the fact that the heat pump extends out into the cold, where frost can build up. Because the frost hampers the ability of the heat pump to provide heat, the heat pump has to occasionally divert its attention to thawing itself out! This disrupts the flow of heat into your house until the heat pump has satisfactorily thawed itself.

3. Ground-source. Ground-source heat pumps serve the same purpose, but instead of moving heat from the outside air into your home, they move heat from the ground (earth) into your home in cold months, and transfer heat from your house back into the ground in the summer. Since earth temperature is pretty steady, and warmer in winter months than the outside air, performance can remain closer to the same level year-round.

Though digging (vertically or horizontally, depending upon available space) will be required to install the piping of the heat pump underground, these heat pumps will not suffer the frost frustration that air-source heat pumps have to endure; the whole heat pump unit, minus the underground piping, is actually indoors.

4. SEER and HSPF Ratings. Consider these ratings when choosing a heat pump. SEER (Seasonal Energy Efficiency Rating) refers to the efficiency of the heat pump acting as an air conditioner, while HSPF (Heating Seasonal Performance Factor) tells you how efficient the heat pump works as a heating unit. If you can, choose the heat pump that is most efficient.

5. Size. You could probably get away with heating and cooling exclusively on a heat pump, but you’d be better off relieving your heat pump with a different heat source in the coldest parts of the year; heat pumps aren’t as efficient in extreme cold.

The treadle pump is based on a design developed in the 1970s by Norwegian engineer Gunnar Barnes. It can be made locally. A group based in the United States, IDE, International Development Enterprises, has created programs in different countries.

The program in India won an Ashden Award in 2006 for using local sources of energy to improve quality of life. Last year the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation awarded IDE 27 million dollars. The money is to be used to expand small irrigation projects to the other half of India’s 28 states.

The treadle pump is easy to build from bamboo or other wood and two metal cylinders with pistons. The pistons go up and down as a person stands on lever devices — treadles — and uses a natural walking motion.

How many hours a day the pump needs to be operated depends on the season and how much water is needed for crops. It could be two hours a day. It could be seven hours a day.

Small children sometimes stand with their parents on the treadles. Everyone in the family can take turns operating the pump.

The Acumen Fund is a nonprofit group that invests in business projects to fight poverty. It studied the effects of treadle pumps in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Uttar Pradesh has three treadle pump manufacturers and more than 73 thousand pumps.

Acumen reported that families using them ate more vegetables, because they were able to grow more to eat and to sell. Many of these families also drank more milk, because they bought a cow with their added earnings. Men with treadle pumps often no longer have to leave the farm to seek extra work in cities.

The pumps can also improve education. Farmers often use their extra earnings to buy books for their children or to pay for schooling.

A farmer in Zambia said he hoped to have enough money in three years to buy a diesel powered pump. Then he could grow more crops over a larger area.

But the world economic crisis has had an effect on some farmers. IDE executive director Zenia Tata says some who were able to buy diesel pumps now do not enough money to buy fuel. So they are using their treadle pumps again.

Like most things in life, the rope pump is not a package of unmitigated joy and happiness. There are a few drawbacks. These include depth limitations and possible water contamination.

While the rope pump is effective for shallow wells, it is less effective for deeper wells. Unfortunately, it is not easy to predict how deep a well can be in which a rope pump will work.

The unpredictability arises from the use of local materials with no universal standards. Both the diameter and thickness of the valves, for example, affect how deep a well may be (on which to put a rope pump). Because inner tubes and leather come in several thicknesses, and because the valves are cut by hand by local artisans, they are not uniform. If the valve is too thin and flexible, it bends and releases water down to the valve below it on the rope.

As wells are more deep, the water weighing on the bottom valve may be so heavy that it all leaks down before it can be brought to the top of the well. Similarly, even if it is not too flexible, it may not be cut to precisely the diameter of the inside of the pipe, and water will again leak to the valve below. This problem, too, increases with the depth of the well. If the valve is cut to fit too tightly against the inside of the pipe, in contrast, it might more effectively bring the water up the pipe, but that might also add to the difficulty of cranking the wheel at the top. At some point the wheel will be too difficult to turn by hand. This problem, too, increases with the depth of the well.

Since these are unpredictable variables, it is not yet possible to state what is the maximum depth of well on which a rope pump will be effective. Perhaps it is 35-45 metres.

Another drawback is a potential for well contamination. The rope pump described above does not indicate that the well should be covered. There is a tendency for local people to omit covering the well, because that takes time, money, effort and desire (based on hygiene knowledge). If the well is uncovered, little animals can get into it and defecate or die or both. Human wastes and parasites can even find their way into the well if hands are not clean when the wheel is cranked.

A good well cover will allow the pipe to come up above it, before diverting the water pulled up by the upcoming rope to a container. A simple hole in the cover for the down going rope may be satisfactory. It will certainly be improved by installing a short piece of pipe, a little wider than the main pipe, above the cover, so that the valves can easily go into it, along with the rope, back down into the well.

When the residents of the community are not so concerned about hygiene (the norm, unfortunately, rather than the exception), and short on resources, they may be more tempted to omit the cover, thus allowing an increased potential for well contamination.

Appropriate training and effective hygiene public awareness may decrease the effects of these drawbacks.

While these are recognized drawbacks to using a rope pump, they are not major problems. Experts with vested interests in using hand pumps, however, will exaggerate them, and omit telling you that the costs of dealing with such minor drawbacks are far lower than the costs of using hand pumps.

The rope pump, now popular in Central America, is quite simple. It consists of a continuous loop of rope. It is wrapped around a bicycle wheel at the top of the well.

It hangs loose down into the well, and then is brought up through the inside of a plastic pipe to the top again. On the rope are attached valves, made from used inner tubes (or any suitable flexible material such as used shoe leather), every 20 to 30 cm. The bicycle wheel can be cranked by hand so that the rope moves down the outside of the pipe and then up again inside the pipe. A bicycle frame can be modified by a welder and with a hacksaw to hold the bicycle wheel, and the foot pedals modified to become a hand crank. As the rope comes up the inside of the pipe, the valves push water from the bottom of the well to the top. A junction is made into the pipe near the top so the rope continues up to the wheel while the water spills out of the pipe to a waiting container.

Students Make Rope Pump at Science Fair

All the components of the rope pump are usually available in any medium sized town: rope, used inner tubes, used bicycle frame and wheel, and plastic pipe. None is very expensive.

The rope pump has been around for years, perhaps decades, but in the past few years it has become popular and widely used in Nicaragua.

This submersible pump is from Taizhou Kaili Pumps Co., Ltd. The company established in 1994,  is one of the largest pump manufacturers in Zhejiang China. Since established, The “XIONGLI” water pumps have been honored as “the famous product of Zhejiang Province”, “new millennium high quality science and technology symbol product of Zhejiang” and “Reliable and credible enterprise” etc.
Taizhou Kaili Pumps CO., Ltd won the production license of the national industrial products in 1999, gained the popularizing license from the Ministry of Agriculture in 2000 and past the international quality system ISO9001 and CCC authentication in the same year. People’s Insurance Company of China has taken the Quality Assurance in 2002.

This submersible pump has been Approved by CE.This series pump’s model is QDX, QX series, consists of pump, mechanical seal and motor. Pump is at the bottom part of pump, which is adopted centrifugal impeller. Motor which is monophase or triphase is at the upper part of pump and seal is used where pump and motor combine, which is a kind of doubleend mechanical seal, O rings are applied to all static joints.

This series pump is small and light, which is widely used in countryside for elevating water from well, irrigation, sprinkling and domestic water supply, and also used in draining off water for fish pond and building site.

If you want to buy such submersible pump, you can click the link above to contact the company, or have a look at other pumps .

The Army Corps of Engineers has broken ground on a serious construction project: a 150,000-gallon-per-second, $500m pumping station charged with keeping the city of New Orleans a little, uh, dryer than it has been in the last few years.

The pump is just a small part of a larger $14bn plan to seal up New Orleans’ levees and bolster the city’s disaster preparedness, but it’s without a doubt the most visually impressive. PopSci’s thrown together a couple of diagrams to give us a sense of scale, and trust me, they’re necessary—see that little white thing next to the diesel engine? That’s a full-sized human being. There aren’t a whole lot of companies that make combustion engines that cartoonishly huge, so my money’s on something from a company like Wartsila-Sulzer, which makes engines like this to spin the props on ultramassive cargo ships, and conceivably, pumps:

At any rate, the pump is expected to be operational—and NOLA slightly safer—by 2011.